Esmond III, Emperor of Austenasia
HIM Emperor Esmond III is one of the current Monarchs of the Empire of Austenasia, having ruled alongside HIM Emperor Declan I since 19 December 2010, although only nominally since 31 March 2011. He ascended to the Throne after the abdication of Emperor Terry, and after leading the nation through the Austenasian Civil War significantly strengthened the position of the Austenasian Monarchy, the Throne holding a lot more political influence than it had under the previous Emperor. Esmond III has previously had a large amount of influence over the whole Carshalton Sector, all of the nations in which have at some point directly acknowledged him as suzerain or overlord. Between the Austenasian Civil War and the War of the Orlian Reunification, Esmond III was often referred to as the Western Emperor after he began to claim to be successor to the Western and Holy Roman Emperors - however, after the War of the Orlian Reunification, he was practically replaced in this respect by Declan I, who holds all of the Carshalton Sector nations in personal union. On 31 March 2011, Parliament passed a Vote of No Confidence against Esmond III in response to his increasingly eccentric plans for Austenasia (e.g. transformation into a communist dictatorship, the establishment of tens of seasons in the calender per month, etc). Roughly four months after his removal from power in Austenasia, Esmond III was appointed Prince of Copan by Declan I, II & V, Tsar of Orly. Although this made him a vassal of the Tsar, it also put Esmond III back in a position of relative power in the Carshalton Sector. Early Life Emperor Esmond III was born on 9 June 1995 in the United Kingdom. His Imperial Majesty attends the same school as HIH Crown Prince Jonathan. Becoming Emperor On 14 October 2009, Esmond was appointed Duke of Highland after Emperor Terry I relinquished this title. He chose the title "Dark Lord" instead of the customary "Lord" because it apparently sounded better. As a further symbolic honour, the future Emperor was made 2nd in line to the Throne through Act 105 on 25 October, as a purely ceremonial gesture - he was not expected to actually inherit the Throne, seeing as there was no clue Emperor Terry would abdicate nor that Crown Prince Jonathan would refuse the Throne. When Terry I unexpectedly abdicated on 15 February 2010, Crown Prince Jonathan refused the Throne so as to remain Prime Minister. He met Dark Lord Esmond in Sutton town centre the day afterwards with a draft of Act 113 (Abdication of HIM Emperor Terry I). The Act was signed at approximately 14:40, at the 151 bus stop outside Matalans, making Emperor Esmond III the new Monarch of the Empire. Reign While Emperor Esmond held the powers of the Throne, he was the head of a constitutional monarchy in which the Emperor has the ability to hold substantial power. While Terry I was content with his role as a constitutional and mainly ceremonial monarch, Emperor Esmond assumed a much more proactive role, helped by his popularity amongst the population and armed forces. Soon after his ascension to the Throne, His Imperial Majesty expressed interest in making the Empire more self-sufficient. Austenasian Civil War Beginning of War On 7 March 2010, Lord General William declared civil war upon the Emperor in a violent attempt to uphold Princess Caroline's claim to the Throne. Esmond III learnt of this at about 08:10 the following morning and passed Act 116 just over two hours later. Act 116: *Accepted the declaration of war and mobilised the Austenasian Army. *Removed Lord General William of all Austenasian titles and offices, making the Emperor the 3rd Duke of Royton and making Crown Prince Jonathan the new Minister of Defence. *Disbanded South Kilttown Police Force and the 1st South Kilttown Grenadiers Platoon, and placed South Kilttown under martial law. *Disbanded the Imperial Navy and Imperial Air Force, and transferred their functions to the Austenasian Army. *Made the low-security house arrest of Princess Caroline official. The Emperor helped the Prime Minister in recruiting a large amount of troops for the Austenasian Army, and on 15 March gave Imperial Consent to Act 117, which established the Austenasian Imperial Marine Corps as a successor to the Imperial Navy. Coronation Plans On 25 March 2010, it was announced that a coronation was being planned for sometime between 5-16 April 2010, to help ceremonially further legitimise the Emperor's rule. On 6 April, the date was specified to be the 12th. This was postponed on the 11th to an unspecified date later in the month, but was later cancelled altogether until after the war was over. Referendum On 16 May 2010, the Austenasian Monarchical Referendum took place. Esmond III had agreed to abdicate should Princess Caroline receive significantly more support than him (although he was not legally bound to do so), and the Princess was bound by treaty to renounce her immediate claim to the Throne should the Emperor receive more votes than her. The latter occurred, the Emperor receiving double the amount of votes received by Princess Caroline. She formally renounced her claim to the Throne on 24 May with the signing of the Treaty of Ruskin Road (2010), ending the war and recognising the Emperor as the legitimate Monarch. Post-War After the civil war was over, Emperor Esmond held significantly more power and influence over Austenasia and the surrounding community than Terry I ever had, mostly due to the huge increase in the Austenasian Armed Forces (amongst whom he is very popular) prompted by his recruitment drives. Despite this, he announced on 16 June 2010 that he wished to make Austenasia "a peaceful nation" and pledged to downsize the Armed Forces as much as was practical. Within a week, 11 soldiers (including the entire 2nd Wrythe Platoon) had been disbanded, and the Admiral of the AIMC had resigned. On 1 July, the now empty Marine Corps was disbanded. Coronation On 18 September 2010, His Imperial Majesty paid an unexpected visit to Wrythe with two friends. After meeting Rose and Edd, and engaging in friendly greetings with his former enemy Princess Caroline and her mother Vicereine Margaret, the Emperor and his entourage accompanied Crown Prince Jonathan upstairs to the Prime Minister's Office. The Imperial Regalia had been stored there since during the civil war, and were presented to the Emperor by the Crown Prince. A narration by the Crown Prince descibes what happened next: "The Emperor took the Imperial Chain from its box and put it on around his neck. The Imperial Robes were carefully taken out of my wardrobe and presented to him, but the Monarch announced that he would use a paragraph of Act 108 to change what was designated as the Imperial Robes to the clothes he was already wearing, and I gave my consent to this. I held up the Imperial Diadem to crown him, but His Imperial Majesty took the Diadem from my hands and crowned himself Emperor of Austenasia, directly above the spot that the Declaration of Independence had been sent two years previously. Myself and the two others present gazed in reverent awe at the Western Augustus wearing his Imperial Diadem, after which he removed it, and placed his hands on the Imperial Sceptre. After this, he replaced the sceptre and returned the Imperial Chain to its box, and announced that the original Imperial Robes were redesignated as such." This coronation differed from that of Terry I in many ways. Firstly, not all items of regalia were worn at the same time. Secondly, and most significantly, the Emperor crowned himself, following the example of the Byzantine and Russian Emperors, not of the British Kings and Queens. This, as well as the fact that the Emperor did not swear a coronation oath, reveals the change of national opinion towards the Monarchy, no longer seen as a constitutionally-bound figurehead but as the successor to the Western and Holy Roman Emperors (also shown in the Prime Minister's narrative of the event). King of Rushymia On 17 October 2010, the Emperor accompanied Crown Prince Jonathan to the Field, where they searched for King Alex's Bottle (see Rushymia). The Emperor climbed to the top of the fence and retrieved it, becoming the new King of Rushymia upon touching it with both hands. It was placed in the Emperor's bag, which was then stolen by a large dog which proceeded to run around the Field with it. By the time the owner had retrieved the Emperor's bag from the dog, the bottle had fallen out and was lost somewhere in the long grass. However, the Emperor had already touched it and therefore become the first King of Rushymia since Alex the Great more than a decade ago. Four days after he had assumed the title King of Rushymia, through Act of Parliament the Emperor also bestowed upon himself the dormant title General of Rushymia. War of the Orlian Reunification On 8 December 2010, the throne of the Kingdom of the Grove became empty. The King of Copan assumed the empty throne as Regent, which under the Edict of Orly (the decree by Caesar Calum that divided the Caesarship of Orly into Copan and the Grove) the King of Copan was allowed to do, to act as a provisional head of state during an interregnum until the "western Emperor" (the Emperor of Austenasia - see Imperium) appoints a successor. Before Esmond III had a chance to appoint a successor to the throne of the Grove, the King of Copan reunified the two kingdoms into the Tsardom of Orly, declaring himself Tsar. On 9 December, the Emperor demanded that he be permitted to excercise his right of appointing a new leader for the people of the Grove under the Edict of Orly. The Tsar refused, and removed the Tsardom of Orly from the Emperor's nominal suzerainty. In return, the Emperor declared a symbolic state of war between Orly and the titular resurrected nation of Rushymia, of which the Emperor was King. The Midget Nation-in-Exile had been allied with the Kingdoms of Copan and the Grove, and so considered Orly to have inherited their agreement of mutual defence. They declared war on Rushymia in response to the Emperor's declaration of war. As the Midget Nation had, at least since the Austenasian Civil War, been practically an Austenasian vassal, this act of hostility against the Emperor marked the end of the hegemony of Esmond III over the Carshalton Sector. The Midget Nation even went so far as to threaten Austenasia, which led to the Empire joining the war on the side of Rushymia against Orly and the Midgets on 10 December. When Austenasia entered the War of the Orlian Reunification, a State of Emergency was declared in the Empire for the first time in history. The Emperor was granted a range of emergency powers, giving him practically absolute power, the only notable restraint on which was that Esmond III could not amend a previously passed Act of Parliament without the consent of Parliament itself. On 19 December 2010, Wrythe fell to the Midget Army, and the war was declared over. As part of the peace settlement, the Counsellors of State were made to appoint the Tsar of Orly, Declan I, II & V, joint Emperor, ruling alongside Esmond III. Esmond III was initially furious that Declan I had been appointed joint Monarch with him, and even considered drastically changing the Constitution to ensure that only he had supreme power. However, he was dissuaded from this by Crown Prince Jonathan and Lord William Kingsnorth, and accepted that any change to the Constitution would need the overt consent of the population. Vote of No Confidence Since 31 March 2011, the rule of Esmond III over Austenasia has been purely nominal, as after numerous eccentric schemes (most aimed at establishing himself as absolute ruler and/or infringing on basic principles of the Empire and rights of its people) he was removed from power by a Vote of No Confidence by Parliament. Under normal circumstances, this would necessitate a Regency, but as Declan I also held the Throne, he has now assumed the full powers of the Monarchy. Imperium During the civil war, the Esmondian government attempted many different ways to further legitimise the Emperor's right to that title. Many secret operations, including Project Imperium, were set up. As a result of this, the government began to adopt a new political theory, heavily based on that of the late Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and early Holy Roman Empire: that there can only be two Emperors in the world, one ruling over the West and one ruling over the East, and that an Emperor's claim to that title can only be legitimised by being recognised as an Emperor by another one. From then on the Austenasian government viewed the Emperor of Austenasia as the Western Emperor, as although not yet legitimised he was the only ruling monarch recognised by Austenasia claiming that title in the West (despite being on the same side as New Europe during the civil war, the Esmondian government solved this problem by only ever addressing their monarch as "Kaiser", claiming it held the same rank as Caesar, not Emperor). They also recognised the Emperor of Japan as the legitimate Eastern Emperor. On 4 June 2011, HIM Emperor Sebastian I (recognised by the Austenasian Government as the legitimate claimant to the title of German Emperor) recognised the Austenasian Throne as holding full Imperial dignity, thereby legitimising the Emperor of Austenasia's claim to that rank. Despite this medieval political theory, the Esmondian view of the world is also held by the others in the "Carshalton Sector": the Midget Nation-in-Exile acknowledged the suzerainty of Esmond III, as did the Kingdoms of the Grove and Copan - the Grove even permitted the Austenasian Monarch to take the throne if there was no other heir, and the citizens of Orly asked the Emperor to appoint a leader for them. On 12 November 2010, the Emperor was able to personally depose King Calum I and replace him as leader of the Grove with Crown Prince Jonathan, with no opposition from the Grovian people. After the War of the Orlian Reunification, for a short period of time the Tsar of Orly began to be respected as the overlord of the Carshalton Sector, but before long the Austenasian Throne was once again beginning to be recognised as the supreme dignity in the western world.